Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

I have from time to tie opined here about the philosophy of humor. What does it mean for something (say, a brief story with an unexpected reversal at the end) to be funny? Today I'll simply offer a test case for your consideration. Can we agree that this is funny, then worry about why? The Simpsons a few years back did a Halloween episode set in the 1930s. The town of Springfield was ripped apart by panicked mobs after a radio program put together by a young Orson Welles that presented fake news reports of a Martian invasion. The next morning, Orson Welles is on his way out of town. He is met by the police chief who has just been surveying the damage done by the riots. This dialog ensures: Chief Wiggum: Why shouldn't I punch you in the nose, bud?! Orson Wells: (muttering to himself), Nose bud? Hmmmm. Is that funny?

Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) was surely one of the most prolific of great mathematicians. Among his contributions, we need to mention two, each of which comes down to us as a single letter: the letter e and the letter i .  E uler was born in Basel, Switzerland, so his life and work might fittingly be considered a riposte to the old anti-Swiss jibe (originally from The Third Man ) that Switzerland has produced nothing for all its years of peace and democracy more than the humble cuckoo clock.   Since Euler’s day and because of his work, i stands for the simplest of the numbers that Descartes had called “imaginary.” This i refers to the square root of -1. We don’t need to bother ourselves further with the question “ what is the square root of -1?” It is simply  i , by stipulation. We don't end there, of course, but we can start from there and build something new and important.   Also since Euler’s day and because of his work, e stands for perhaps the m...